Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who dropped out of the race this year, and Representative Paul D. Ryan, the new speaker of the House, who chose not to run for president after joining the ticket in 2012, watched the debate from the audience on Tuesday.

Share This Page

Continued

Photo

From left: Jeb Bush, Senator Marco Rubio, Donald J. Trump, Ben Carson and Senator Ted Cruz during the fourth Republican debate.Credit
Michael Appleton for The New York Times

There were stumbles: Mr. Rubio flubbed a line about parenthood. Mr. Cruz said he would eliminate five federal agencies and named four, citing the Department of Commerce twice.

But for the second consecutive debate, the young senators established themselves as effective masters of the format, culling from their stump speeches and staking out familiar turf with verve.

Mr. Cruz set off on extended riffs defending staunchly conservative positions on immigration and fiscal policy, and assailed Hillary Rodham Clinton as an embodiment of the “cronyism of Washington.”

Mr. Rubio laced his remarks with bits of his family’s story, flashing a boyish smile, and continued to project a relative fluency on matters of foreign policy.

Donald J. Trump: An Attack Dog, but a Sleepy One

The formula is now well-established: Punch down at lower-polling rivals, recede when the conversation wades too deep into the policy thickets.

Though Mr. Trump began the evening subdued, by his standards, he quickly found his way to targets new and old: Gov. John Kasich (“I don’t have to hear from this man”) and Carly Fiorina (“Why does she keep interrupting everybody?”), among others.

But opponents like Mr. Kasich and Jeb Bush forcefully dismissed Mr. Trump's immigration proposals (border walls, mass deportation) as unrealistic and damaging to the Republican brand. And when details were required on other policy matters, Mr. Trump often equivocated, faded or both.

Jeb Bush: Better. Maybe.

Mr. Bush has seemingly ached for a breakthrough for several debates. It is not clear he found one.

Still, there were signs of improvement. After receiving scant speaking time two weeks ago, Mr. Bush butted in early and sarcastically thanked Mr. Trump for telling Mr. Kasich to cede the floor.

Mr. Bush then derided Mr. Trump’s immigration plan. Later, he criticized Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Russia could be trusted to “knock the hell out of ISIS,” likening the position to a “board game” mentality.

In a break from the last debate, though, Mr. Bush avoided another sharp showdown with Mr. Rubio, who bested him last time.

Ben Carson: Effectively Forgettable

He had a wholly unremarkable night. Perfect.

At a moment of intense scrutiny after a series of news reports questioning elements of his biography, Mr. Carson came away largely unscathed. Pressed on the reports, he said, “I have no problem with being vetted. What I do have a problem with is being lied about.”

He then pivoted, to cheers, to an attack on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s honesty concerning the Benghazi, Libya, attack. There was no further follow-up on his own credibility, from either the moderators or his competitors.

Separately, Mr. Carson said he opposed raising the minimum wage, after previously expressing an openness to the idea.

Rand Paul: Still Here

Mr. Paul reminded voters that on some central issues, he stands alone in the Republican field, arguing against overzealous military spending.

Shouting “Marco! Marco!” in a memorable exchange with Mr. Rubio, Mr. Paul said it was not conservative to “keep promoting new programs that you’re not going to pay for.”

He also got the better of Mr. Trump, who had discussed at length China’s purported role concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “We might want to point out,” Mr. Paul interjected, “China is not part of this deal.”

—
Matt Flegenheimer

Share This Page

Photo

Jeb Bush, left, and Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday.Credit
Michael Appleton for The New York Times

They talked about easy money, bemoaned the Fed, predicted that tax cuts would spur economic growth not seen since the 1990s, and lamented the impact of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations law.

But in a debate hosted by Fox Business Network, moderated in part by the editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, the eight leading candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination were least sure-footed when discussing details on how the economy actually works.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas testily battled Gov. John Kasich of Ohio on whether the big Wall Street banks should be bailed out in a crisis. Mr. Cruz said no way. Mr. Kasich said, well, he would not bail out the banks, but then again, he would protect some investors and creditors.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida declared that Dodd-Frank did not get the big banks to build up their capital assets to protect themselves in time of crisis, when, in fact, the law's capital requirements, oversight and stress tests did exactly that.

"In Dodd-Frank you have actually codified too big to fail," Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said, because it declared some financial firms "systemically important." He said those banks bragged about their status, when in fact, companies about to be declared systemically important have labored mightily to avoid the label and the regulations that accompany it.

But it made sense. So many of the candidates brought their own baggage to such discussions.

"I'll tell you about Wall Street, there's too much greed," Mr. Kasich said, not mentioning that he had worked for the collapsed Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers.

When Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky entered the presidential race, he seemed to have a big base on which to build: the libertarian-minded conservatives who were the ground troops of his father, former Representative Ron Paul.

But in his quest for broader support, he has sometimes muddled his libertarian message — until the debate Tuesday in Milwaukee.

Mr. Paul sought out, and got into, a fight with Senator Marco Rubio over military spending, and in so doing he reignited a war that has been simmering since the last primary season between traditional Republican hawks and a war-weary younger crowd.

Mr. Paul thundered that Mr. Rubio, an outspoken hawk, could not call himself a conservative when he wants to spend a trillion dollars more on the military.

"We’re spending more on our military than the next 10 countries combined," he said.

Mr. Rubio, who is at his best when under attack, pushed back hard on the need to fortify the United States' military strength, and he had much of the audience behind him.

"The world is a safer and better place when America is the strongest military power in the world," he said.

But the battle lines were drawn. Jeb Bush joined the Rubio chorus; Donald J. Trump joined Mr. Paul.

"Why are we always doing the work?" Mr. Trump protested. "We can’t continue to be the policeman of the world."

—
Jonathan Weisman

Share This Page

"Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers."

It was almost exactly four years ago when Gov. Rick Perry of Texas flamed out during a Republican debate when he proudly proclaimed he had specific federal departments he would eliminate — then forgot which ones they were, even as Ron Paul tried to jog his memory.

"Oops," he famously said — and never recovered.

Perhaps tempting the fates or forgetting the Alamo, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas defended his tax-cutting plan on Tuesday night by saying that he would also cut spending drastically, with $500 billion in specific cuts.

"Five major agencies that I would eliminate: the I.R.S., Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, uh, the Department of Commerce and HUD."

Well, the Department of Commerce has been in the cross hairs since Gov. John Kasich of Ohio was the House Budget Committee chairman in the 1990s. Maybe it is worth cutting twice.

—
Jonathan Weisman

Share This Page

Photo

Gov. Scott Walker of WisconsinCredit
Michael Appleton

Photo

Representative Paul D. RyanCredit
Michael Appleton

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, left, and Representative Paul D. Ryan, right, the speaker of the House.Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who dropped out of the race this year, and Representative Paul D. Ryan, the new speaker of the House, who chose not to run for president after joining the ticket in 2012, watched the debate from the audience on Tuesday.

And the other candidates lined up on either side of the divide. Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, said Mr. Trump's position was not in concert with American values, nor was it helpful to the Republican quest to reclaim the White House.

"If Republicans join the Democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose," he said, to surprisingly tepid applause.

Democrats will enter the general election with a demographic advantage. Hispanic and other immigrant voters could be decisive — if they are as energized to vote as the conservative voters Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz were appealing to.

Perhaps none of the top-tier candidates had more at stake during the debate hosted by Fox Business Network than former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who needed not only to move up in the polls, but also to reassure donors slowly bleeding toward his fellow Floridian, Senator Marco Rubio.

Mr. Bush's moment started slowly. When his first question arrived, he was interrupted by Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who improbably broke in to demand a conversation on the value-added tax. Mr. Bush had said he would not let himself be walked on, yet he did. Mr. Kasich would not be silenced and made his point.

Bookending that moment, Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, took the next question and made the audience forget what Mr. Bush had been trying to say.

Five minutes later, as Mr. Bush could be heard trying to break into an argument between Mr. Kasich and Donald J. Trump, Mr. Trump added perhaps the last insult: "You should let Jeb speak."

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey didn't let a little thing like being relegated to the so-called undercard debate stand in his way on Tuesday night.

Mr. Christie made the most of his time onstage with three other candidates: Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas; Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana; and Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania.

A deft political performer, Mr. Christie repeatedly looked straight into the camera as he answered questions. He lightly condescended to Mr. Jindal as his rival governor tried to score points by painting Mr. Christie as a bit too close to certain Obama-era policies.

Most of all, Mr. Christie used his time the way a front-running candidate would have: largely ignoring his opponents and casting his eye toward Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democrat who is polling well ahead of her rivals in her primary.

"Hillary Clinton's coming for your wallet, everybody," Mr. Christie warned at one point, casting Mrs. Clinton as a tax-and-spend Democrat who couldn't be entrusted with the country's future.

The problem with all of this, at the moment, is that Mr. Christie is polling below the average of 2.5 percent in four recent polls that was required to make the main stage at the debate, hosted by Fox Business Network.

And Mr. Christie's message was not always consistent. At the outset, he declined to name a single Democratic senator whom he admired, only to declare in his closing statement that he is a uniter who would bring the country together. Those two thoughts are, at best, at odds.

Still, Mr. Christie showed some of the raw political talent that few in the sprawling Republican field possess, and he easily outshone those who were onstage with him. In an election cycle filled with sugar highs in the polls, that might be all he needs to get him to the next debate.